Desired Effect
by amethyst noir
Summary: A simple conversation between friends can always mend one's broken spirits...and maybe some cracked ribs too.


**A/N:** Just a little oneshot I thought was sorta cute and I was smirking when I wrote it so I hope it make _someone_ out there smile at least!...enjoy...

**Disclaimer:** I'm sad to say that I, in no way, own Gundam Wing and am making no money off of this short venture.

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**"Desired Effect"**

"Dammit! Ouch! Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! _Ouch!_" Duo Maxwell held a hand over his crudely taped ribs as he shifted uneasily in the back seat of the military jeep and tried to quell the pain. He ignored Quatre and Trowa's sympathetic looks from the front seat and Heero and Wufei's watching eyes from the back where they clung to the roll bar as he shifted, slowly, and found a slightly more comfortable position. Leaning his head back he closed his eyes and wondered if maybe he was being too stubborn for his own good.

"Maybe we should take you to a doctor," Quatre suggested, not for the first time since retrieving the braided boy. "You aren't going to do yourself any good if you puncture a lung by moving around too much."

"_I'm helping_," Duo insisted. He had taken some proffered ibuprofen from the blond boy, not wanting any stronger painkiller that would make him all loopy. Duo preferred having all his wits about him when fighting bad guys and what have you. And now he had a personal vendetta, namely involving the many injuries lining his body, to keep in mind. He would see this one to the end, one way or another. "Not going to a doctor or back to the base unless you guys are." There was a pause. "What did you say we were doing again? Where are we going?"

Quatre exchanged a small smile with Trowa--who was trying to concentrate on navigating the vehicle--and ignored Duo's white-hot glower from the back seat. Careful not to jar his ribs, the battered boy nudged the front seat with a hand.

"Freighter," Quatre reminded Duo. Nodding, Duo vaguely remembered something about a cargo ship or a supertanker or something like that. Duo grimaced again. His ribs were going to be the death of him yet and this car--did Trowa really have to hit every single pothole in the goddamned road?

Wufei looked down at Duo for a moment and saw the pained expression on his face and shook his head. The boy's ridiculous hate of hospitals and medical care could be infuriating at times. "_Must_ you be so stubborn, Maxwell?"

"Must," Duo agreed with a slick grin. "Part of…my charm. Duo Maxwell, brains, brawn and stubborn sincerity."

"Brains?" Wufei asked curiously, his dark eyes flashing with amusement. "Because I'm pretty sure I'm not the one riding around out here with broken ribs and more bruises and cuts than I can count. And I'm not the one who only took an over the counter painkiller to help. Nope, I don't think we can credit you for brains today, Maxwell. You gave those up somewhere along the road back there." He stuck his thumb over his shoulder pointing to the darkening road left in their wake.

Duo rolled his violet eyes eloquently. "I'll have you know that the girls love me for my brainpower, my ability to put two and two together to get four. I'm a natural talent, unlike some people I can mention who have to _work_ at it."

Wufei snorted and Duo resisted the urge to laugh. Laughing was so not a good idea right now. In fact, in the way of ideas, laughing was very low on the list at the moment.

"Okay, okay, you're _smart_," Wufei agreed, derisively. "And you have _natural intelligence_. We always knew that. That leads us back to _stubborn_…"

"You're just as bad as he is," Heero reminded the Chinese boy quietly, staring at him from the corner of his eye. It was just too brilliant an irony to pass up without pointing it out.

"You're one to talk Yuy. You and Maxwell together are worse than any thousand other stubborn people. Running around with gunshot wounds, knife wounds, broken limbs, broken ribs…never knowing when it's time to slow down and let your body heal. Don't even think you're not as bad as he is, Heero."

"How far is it to this place?" Duo asked, interrupting impatiently and averting his attention to the front seat. "And must you hit every hole in the road, Tro? Aren't there better roads between here and there?"

Trowa, smirking nearly unnoticeably, looked in the rearview mirror at Duo who nudged the back of his seat with a foot and winced in pain when it pulled on his ribs.

His eyes grudgingly drifted back to Heero's ever so slightly smug looking face. It was rare for anything to amuse the stoic boy so greatly, but when it came to Duo...

"Remind me to kill you later okay?" Duo asked the boy. "Because you need it. Badly. That or just a solid butt-kicking would work."

Heero actually snorted, he really couldn't help himself. It seemed like such a terribly absurd thing to suggest. "You wish. Even at your best, Duo, you would never be able to kick my butt."

"Your memory must be real messed up," Duo grinned slyly upwards. "Because you were never able to take me."

Quatre shook his head, laughing at both of them. It wasn't rare to see the two boys bicker, but when it was an argument dealing with something lighthearted, it was quite a sight, a scarce one at that.

Luckily, amidst his ongoing, now one sided argument with Heero and intermittent snide comments from Wufei Duo's mind had been taken off of his painful bodily injuries and hurt pride.

The banter had had its desired effect.


End file.
